Robbins Ramblings: Ajaccio - The Birthplace of Napoleon.

After five days of visiting large city ports I was looking forward today to arriving at one of the smaller calls of our cruise, Ajaccio in Corsica. We weren't due to arrive until after ten, so we had a leisurely breakfast and a quick game of table tennis prior to leaving the ship. The weather was sunny and bright and the harbour looked beautiful in the sunshine.

As we left the ship we phoned Victoria to congratulate her on her recent half marathon and to see if we could be seen on the ship's webcam. She said she saw us but I think she was just humouring us.

Corsica is probably most famous for being the birthplace of Napoleon and everywhere you go there are streets named after him and many statues. We decided firstly to visit his birthplace which is now a small museum which houses many artifacts from his youth. It was a liitle confusing at times as the commentary referred to several of the Napoleons being associated with the house. This is the first one.

The next stop on our Napoleon tour was to be the cathedral where he was baptised , unfortunately it was closed due to a funeral taking place.

We decided at this point to give up on the culture and to take a look at the beach, where Sylvia ventured down onto the thin strip of sand.

Ajaccio is a lovely little town with plenty of shops and a market selling local produce such as jams, honey, and the speciality nougat. This is made in huge blocks which are cut to the size required.

After spending time looking at the shops we wandered back to the ship through the small harbour....

....with the mountains forming a backdrop on the other side of the bay.

This evening was the second formal night of the cruise which entails dressing up in dinner suit and posh frock. Neither Sylvia or I fancied that so we decided instead to watch "The Movies Under the Stars" presentation of Man of Steel, the new Superman film. The movie is projected onto a 300 square feet screen with the sound is output through a 69,000 Watt sound system. We were served pop corn and hot cookies while we sat (under blankets) under the stars. A great way to watch an epic movie.